Shicodale still lay on the stone platform with pain on his face, pale, the soft hands like jade chilled cold.

The pink-haired girl, warm as spring sunlight, shone brilliantly as she gripped his hands, casting a merciful, tender gaze, like a goddess who saved the suffering.

Luna and the other two also each walked up to one of the three stone pillars around the platform. In principle, a high-grade enchanted treatment table could accommodate six people transmitting healing energy at the same time, but because they were short-handed—and only four people present had a Spirit Soul of [Saint’s Envoy], while Miao Ke did not—only three people could transmit healing energy into the enchanted treatment table.

Luna and the other two mobilized their mana, and released healing arts toward the white crystals floating above the stone pillars. Fennia’s healing light was cyan-green, Luna’s healing light was white, and Amisha’s healing light was pure gold.

After receiving the healing energy, the white crystals gradually took on luster from their earlier dimness. Then they became active, flashing constantly, splitting off a white-gold sheen of light that poured into the central stone platform.

After receiving the pure, impurity-free healing energy converted through the white crystals, the inscriptions on the stone base of the platform lit up little by little, gradually spreading across the entire platform. White-gold radiance enveloped Shicodale together with Vanessa, and under the wash of that white-gold light, Shicodale’s condition seemed a bit better—at least his complexion gained a hint of redness.

Before stepping in to transmit healing energy, Luna had also specifically had Fennia and Amisha drink mana-recovery potions, giving them a buff that doubled their mana recovery every second.

Everything was ready. Vanessa began treating Shicodale’s heart wound.

She held Shicodale’s hands with both of hers, half-lidded her eyes, lowered her brows slightly—and the next moment, she lifted her snow-white swan neck like a noble white swan. Pure, flawless angel wings burst freely from her back, and a high, liltingly beautiful soft song echoed through the room, like a swan’s requiem that cleansed the soul.

The sacred melody and chanting embedded themselves into everyone’s heart. All of them sank into it, as if it carried them into a paradise with no pain, only happiness and fulfillment.

Countless soft feathers drifted like flying dandelion fluff, falling onto the old stone bricks around them—and the bricks became as good as new, just like when they had first been cut, polished, and laid.

Miao Ke stared at the girl before the stone platform, the shock in her heart beyond measure. Fennia and Amisha were both intoxicated by this holy hymn brimming with sanctity. As for Luna, she watched Vanessa’s back with a face full of fanaticism and infatuation, like the most fervent believer looking up at a god.

“So beautiful.” Luna murmured in a voice only she could hear, those white-gold cross-shaped pupils filled with infatuation.

This was the most perfect image of a Dawn Saintess in her mind—and Luna also recognized what the pink-haired girl was singing now.

“[Eternal-Day Holy Hymn].” Blazing heat flickered in Luna’s gaze.

This [Saint’s Favor] was extremely famous. Although, as a [Saint’s Favor] of the House of Facilis, its appearance rate was far less than the other two [Saint’s Favor]s, whenever it appeared, it turned the tide and saved the situation when all hope was exhausted.

According to records, the last time [Eternal-Day Holy Hymn] was released was in the era of Saintess Flareli. Back then, Dawn Saintess Flareli Facilis led the Radiant Cross Knights to reinforce the border region, Cliffbreak City, which was under siege by the demon race. She released [Eternal-Day Holy Hymn] and pulled Cliffbreak City back from the brink of being breached.

According to the records from that time, when Saintess Flareli sang [Eternal-Day Holy Hymn], the city walls that had shattered and fallen into the abyss below the cliff “grew” back out again. Before the holy hymn sounded, the city was a field of ruins and warfire. After it sounded—after the entire song ended—the city that had been beaten into a battered, hole-riddled wreck recovered to the intact, pre-war state from months earlier. The warriors lying on the ground at death’s door all revived as well, each one bathing in the battle hymn as they advanced bravely. The low morale was pulled back in an instant.

In that famous battle of Cliffbreak City, with Dawn Saintess Flareli’s [Eternal-Day Holy Hymn] support, the Church’s army shoved the demon race—who had pushed like a broken spear all the way to Cliffbreak City—back into the originally agreed boundary line in one go. For the next hundred years, no demon race dared take even half a step past that line.

It really made one sigh at how times changed. The demon race that had once been beaten by the Church of the Dawn until they dared not cross the boundary line had now redrawn the boundary line back to the Demon-Realm River. And as the place where Dawn Saintesses and the Radiant Cross Knights had once fought, Cliffbreak City had long since become a recognized demon race territory.

Now, Vanessa’s strength naturally could not compare to that Saintess Flareli, who was praised as the “War-God Saintess.” Therefore, the [Eternal-Day Holy Hymn] she released—whether in effectiveness or in the range it could affect—was completely impossible to mention in the same breath as the “holy hymn miracle” recorded in history books.

That Saintess Flareli was a presence ranked in the top three in combat power within the House of Facilis. She was an out-and-out atypical Saintess. Her temperament was unlike the gentleness of other Dawn Saintesses—hers was extremely fierce, and she hated evil and injustice to the bone. Whenever she caught human-traitor scum or those Church parasites who were blinded by profit and harmed the people, she did not let her subordinates act, did not even bother with normal procedures—she would grab her warhammer on the spot, walk up to those pests, and smash their skulls with a single blow.

Back then, the Radiant Cross Knights obeyed only the Dawn Saintess’s orders, the Church was united from top to bottom. It was the era when humanity was strongest, and the continent was most peaceful.

Not like now—peace was on the verge of collapse. The demon race crossed the boundary line that both sides had agreed on again and again, and on the human side, though they looked united on the surface, internally they were split into factions.

It was not only Luna, and not only the Haukekai Family. Among the Church’s aristocratic families who understood the situation clearly, there were many—yet those willing to take action were few and far between.

It wasn’t that they didn’t know. Perhaps it wasn’t that they didn’t want to change it. It was that they couldn’t change it.

Looking at the holy, flawless angel girl singing the requiem, Luna once again became sure she hadn’t chosen the wrong person.

Vanessa closed her eyes...

In the dimness, a sea of flames surfaced, and the elves’ wails and cries filled the entire sky.

Tribal men with twisted faces and nasty laughter yanked the hair of elf girls who were fleeing and crying, dragging the sobbing girls back. And on the other side, in front of towering flames, tribal soldiers were throwing dead elf soldiers into the fire.

Even the elf temple—burned down until only broken walls remained—still {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} let one glimpse its former magnificence. The ruined elf city-state was swallowed by warfire, destroying every place the Moon Elves relied on to live and hide.

This was war. From old people with hair gone gray, to infants just born, everyone would be affected without distinction.

In her memory, this was the most unforgettable hell.

In the next instant, the scene shifted. The Moon Elf king, clad in splendid robes and wearing a crown, was pierced through by a sharp sword. Blood splattered onto the face of the silver-haired elf girl in an elf princess dress behind him—the one he had protected.

The Moon Elf girl’s face was filled with disbelief and shock. Her pupils constricted, her face deathly pale, as if her mind and sluggish perception still hadn’t fully understood what the scene before her eyes even was.

“Live on, my child.”

“Quick. Run.” Even though the Moon Elf king had suffered a grievous wound, the voice he spoke to the girl behind him with was still merciful, filled with love.

He stuffed several gemstones into his daughter’s hands. Using his last mana and life force, he cast magic, barely managing to send the dazed elf girl out of the palace that burned with raging flames.

The Moon Elf girl who was teleported out of the palace let two streams of tears fall as she stood on a hillside. It was as if she could still see her kin suffering in the city, being penned up by the tribal people as slaves and private property. It was as if she could still hear her kin’s despairing wails before they bled to death, and the sound of homes and temples being eaten away little by little by fire.

The miracle, in the end, still did not come.

Her father-king was killed by the tribal people—right in front of her eyes. Her closest kin’s blood stained her face.

The people who supported her were killed. Even at the last moment, they still believed in her—believed that the Golden Elves would come to reinforce them.

The once-sacred ancestral land of the Mother of Forest had now become a human hell, seized and taken over by barbarians from the northern grasslands.

Staring at the cliff that stretched beyond sight, the Moon Elf girl had also thought about jumping down and ending it all, going to accompany her father and her kin. But the words echoing in her ears—“Live on, my child”—dragged her back from the edge of life and death again and again.

She cried until she choked, swallowed hard, and told herself with difficulty and bitterness that she couldn’t die. Her mission was not finished yet. Her kin were still waiting for her to save them. If she died, then the Moon Elves would truly have no hope at all.

Even though, now, she could not see any hope at all, she still believed that as long as she could endure, everything would get better.

Old memories surged up. Since she was little, she had lived in a greenhouse full of honey and flowers, never leaving her home, never leaving the Moon Elf lands.

And now, she had no choice but to travel far away, leaving this place.

In her world, the world had been beautiful—a place filled with flowers, hope, and dreams. The elves lived and worked in peace. Because their lifespans were long, they were very willing to spend time researching things that other races considered boring and meaningless.

But that was the elves’ way of life.

It was only after leaving Mistmoon Forest—after leaving this kingdom of the Moon Elves—that the Moon Elf girl realized just how small the world she had known was, and how ridiculous her previous thoughts had been.

She had thought everything far too simple.

During the escape, because she lacked survival skills too badly, she nearly starved to death. At night she repeatedly encountered vicious jungle spirit beasts, several times passing by mortal danger. Even though she was an elf, she almost couldn’t make it out of the jungle.

Only then did she realize that the jungle outside Mistmoon Forest was actually this dangerous.

Very quickly, the gorgeous princess dress on her body became snagged and torn because it couldn’t be cared for in time—dirty, ragged, and tattered.

Wearing this filthy dress that made her whole body feel uncomfortable was miserable. She had never been so wretched, but she knew she had no other choice.

She couldn’t even get a full meal—where would she find the mind to care about what she was wearing?

There were also several encounters with bandits. The moment they saw her appearance and race clearly, those bandits revealed greedy expressions at once.

Even though her magic talent was quite good, because she lacked the courage to kill and because of her timid nature, she was nearly caught by thieves and robbers several times.

Even though leaving the jungle would make survival harder, she still had to leave the jungle, because she knew that sooner or later, the tribal pursuers would search every surrounding area. The farther she ran the better—run to other human countries, where the tribal people would not dare act rashly.

After that, she reached a human city-state. In order not to draw attention and expose her racial identity, causing unnecessary trouble, she used the disguise gemstones her father had given her to disguise her true sex. She also forced herself to endure the foul stench of rot and put on the cloak and clothes of a dead human female beggar.

After burying the other party, she still couldn’t bear it. She cried while apologizing over and over, saying she was truly sorry, saying she really needed these clothes.

In the end, because of the guards’ negligence, she actually did blend into this human city-state along with the refugee flow.

Drifting in this foreign land, this unfamiliar city—though she avoided being captured by the tribal people, she could only hide inside the stinking cloak all day and never dare show her real face.

The Moon Elf girl drifted in the slums of a human border city, seeing every state of the world.

At first she even doubted where she had arrived, whether she was still on the Tyrelis Continent. But gradually, she understood: the place she was in had always been paradise. It was just that now it had slid into hell. And paradise and hell both existed on the Tyrelis Continent.

When life could no longer be sustained, she sold off her original clothing. The high-grade silk of Mistmoon Forest’s elves ought to have sold for a lot, but the merchants saw through her inexperience at a glance and pretended those rags weren’t worth much money.

So even after selling the clothes off her body, she still didn’t get much money at all.

And the little money she did get, she gave away to other beggars in the slums—when she was clearly more miserable than others, more unable to fill her belly.

A kind and cowardly person could not survive in an environment like this.

When she truly had not even a scrap of food left, she could only put down all dignity and beg for food. Who could imagine how much self-respect a former princess would have to abandon to beg by the roadside?

She smashed her pride completely—yet most of the time, what she received was only other people’s contempt and cold stares.

Not only that, she was deceived again and again by other people in the slums.

Though she had survived under the tribal people’s iron hooves, her soul seemed to have been detained forever in the old elf lands.

The longing for home day and night—though she couldn’t die right away—was a torment more painful than death. It was living without seeing any hope.

Nothing was as simple as she had thought.

She had done her best. All her pride had been shattered, yet even staying alive became a problem for her.

Let alone restoring her country.

Bruised and battered all over, she lay in some unknown corner of the slums, on her last breath.

She felt like she would never see tomorrow’s sun. It was as if something cold had plugged up her chest, suffocating.

Her body was heavy like it had been filled with lead. Even when winter snowflakes fell on her body, they didn’t feel cold anymore—only warm.

Was it over?

Fine.

The Moon Elf girl slowly closed her eyes and collapsed in this deep winter that devoured all hope.